Confucius on Perseverance and June Fun Facts

Here is the original Confucius’s Analects text for our June’s quote: 子曰：“譬如为山，未成一篑，止，吾止也；譬如平地，虽覆一篑，进，吾往也。”

TCG June 2023 brush and ink with Chinese characters

Confucius said: “If you build a mountain with soil, it will come to a point when it needs only one more basket to complete it. You may be exhausted; your decision to give it all up or continue moving forward is ultimately yours.” To Confucius, perseverance is a virtue. This month’s newsletter is our 68th! We have published the monthly newsletter since Nov 2017. For those who have followed us for some time, we hope you enjoy and find something new each month. Hopefully, you have built a library of cross-cultural “small talk” to help you expand your international network. Now, are you ready to have more? Let’s start with the following:

Q1. Which country is the world’s smallest, and which is the largest? If you think Singapore (728 km2 or 281 sq mi) is small, you are far from it. Vatican City, an enclave within Rome, is the smallest country, with an area of only 0.49 km2 (0.19 sq mi) and a population of less than 500. Russiais the largest country with 17,098,246 km2 (6,601,670 sq mi) and a population of ~145 million. (source: Wikipedia)

Q2. Please name the world’s oldest diplomatic alliance. It is the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance (Aliança Luso-Inglesa). The diplomatic/military alliance was established by the Treaty of Windsor in 1386 between the Kingdom of England (now the United Kingdom) and the Kingdom of Portugal (now the Portuguese Republic). Historically, Portugal and the UK have never waged war against each other, nor have they participated in battles on opposite sides as independent states since the signing of the Treaty. (source: Wikipedia.)

Q3. When did Swedish become the official national language in Sweden? Even though Swedish has long been used in local and state governments, it didn’t become the official national language by law until 2009. Besides Finnish, Swedish is also one of Finland’s two official national languages. (source: Wikipedia.)

Q4. How did chillies arrive in India? Thanks to Columbus’ accidental discovery of the Americas, chillies, potatoes, tomatoes, etc., were brought to Europe. Towards the 16th century, European (Portuguese, Dutch and English) ) traders introduced them to the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and Asia. It is an amazing global journey, and if you have 15 mins and want to find out more about how Columbus’ mistakes shaped our modern world, you can watch these TCG clips: TCG SEC SK Modules 07 Chili EN Part1 and TCG SEC SK Modules 07 Chili EN Part2. (source: Wikipedia, TCG Passport series)

Q5. How old is Rome, Italy’s capital city? The traditional date for the founding of Rome is 21st April, 753 BCE; hence, the history of Rome spans about 28 centuries (2,775 years.) The original population of Rome consisted of Latins, Etruscans, and Sabines. Eventually, Rome became the capital of the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, and the birthplace of Western civilization. The poet Tibullus called Rome the Eternal City. (source: Wikipedia, https://rome.us)

For more facts about June’s events, please watch the following Youtube clips: